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Austin
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It was after their gig.
Austin paced in the lounge area. Sienna had shut herself up in the bathroom and refused to come out. Aaron, Alan, Tino, and Phil decided to spend time on Pierce’s bus while Austin sorted out Sienna. He was tired and worn out, but he refused to sleep until she came out of the bathroom. It was nearing 1:45 am and she still hadn’t come out. Austin didn’t want to go to extremes, but he needed to talk to Sienna immediately. He went into the driver’s part of the bus and rummaged through the glove box. He found a small silver key and he pocketed it as he walked back to the bathroom.
He shoved the key into the keyhole and turned it. When he opened the door, he was tackled by the thin brunette, her teeth gritting, the whole nine yards. He couldn’t exactly say he was happy she was trying to beat the living shit out of him, but he was relieved that she was out of the bathroom. He ended up lying underneath Sienna as she tried to stand up to run off to somewhere else, but Austin’s hand was closed on her legs. She smacked at his arms uselessly until she gave up and fell back against Austin’s legs, hard, making him hiss in pain.
“Are you done now?” he egged, getting slightly annoyed. She narrowed her eyes and looked down at his hands which were tightly around her ankles.
“I guess.” she snarled.
“Good.” Austin didn’t let of her ankles, but he sat up so he was now level with her. “Look, I opened up your phone and saw what you were looking at-”
This sent her into another wave of kicks and shouts. Austin cursed at himself for never being one to be able to calm a crying woman and was instantly jealous of Tino and Aaron for that skill they somehow inherited. “Just listen to me!” he shouted. “I saw what page you were on and I want you to know that what they were saying was complete bullshit! I didn’t even think of Luce when I was writing those songs! Jesus Christ! I was married, for God’s sake, and we ended up not being right for each other in so many different ways!”
Sienna stopped struggling and Austin slumped back, a groan rising from his chest. His arms hurt from holding onto her so tightly and his legs were now sore as hell from the bruises that she left.
“You were married?” he heard her mumble. Austin nodded and stared at her. “What do you mean, you weren’t right for each other?”
“I cheated on her, she cheated on me.” Austin said bluntly. “It may have been in that order, it may not have been.”
“But why do the websites say that you wrote it about my mother?” She accused. Austin felt his eyes roll involuntarily.
“Because you only looked at one website.”
She looked dumbfounded and Austin let go of her ankles. He could already see a slight bruise forming on them and he instantly felt guilt-ridden. “Sorry about your ankles-”
“Prove it to me.” she snapped, not letting Austin finish his apology. Austin was flabbergasted.
“Prove what to you?”
“That they all don’t say it’s all my mother’s fault.”
Damn, she was stubborn. He rubbed his face and sighed. “Fine.” He stood and walked to his bunk where he pulled out his apple laptop and sat down with it on the couch. He gestured for his daughter to sit next to him, and she did with at least six inches away from him. Oof. That hurt.
Austin had learned to stay away from googling himself because over the years of being the front man for Of Mice & Men, he found some pretty disturbing images and themes that just made him uncomfortable. But whatever got Sienna on his side again.
“What do you want me to search?” he asked gently. She looked slightly sick when she answered: “Of Mice & Men’s inspiration for lyrics.”
He searched what he was told with the pit in his stomach. He was afraid of what people were going to think his inspiration came from. He pressed the enter key and was surprised at how many results there were. About 3,010,000 results, and they were all probably wrong. All of the results that were on the song O.G. Loko because the lyrics had the word inspiration in it, so he looked at his daughter and shrugged. “Give me something else to work with.”
She sucked in her cheeks looking a bit tired and sighed. “Then the thing I searched before. ‘Did Austin Carlile’s girlfriend cheat on him?’”
Austin typed it in wearily, his mouth in a straight line. He really wasn’t excited to see what the results said, but once again, anything for Sienna.
The first result consisted of the one that Sienna saw that was degrading to her mother. Austin exited out of that page quickly, seeing her eyes well with tears again. He scrolled down and clicked on the third link.
“Look at this one here.” He directed, nodding to the screen. Sienna peeked through her fingers and Austin didn’t know whether to feel relieved or guilty that this one wasn’t about Lucy. “This one is about my ex wife.”
Sienna’s eyes swept over the article. “It’s about the song The Storm too.” She breathed. He nodded, frantically, sorry that he was this excited over someone calling another woman in his life a whore.
“Yeah, see, it looks so official too, because they have quotes from the song and different sites with citation.” Austin said, pointing them out as he went along, skimming the article. “But the funny thing is, is I never said any of this.”
“You didn’t?” she breathed. Austin nodded.
“Look, it says I said: ‘This song is about my ex wife, Gielle. She broke my heart and I didn’t do anything to deserve it-’ I never said any of that.” He smiled and looked down at his daughter, but she was frowning.
“What does Gielle think?” She questioned. Austin sucked in a breath and shrugged.
“I don’t really know. I mean yeah, I wrote songs about her, but I kept the dedication to myself. I just released the song. I wrote some about your mother too, but they were totally different than these.”
“What songs did you write for her?” Sienna asked, looking up at him.
Austin rubbed at his nose and raised his eyebrows. “There’s a song called YDG. It says: You won’t believe me, we’re not the same, ‘cause I dig, and I dig you too. Conformed in writing, I will fight for the sake of you. I will fight for this.”
Austin smiled down at Sienna when she smiled back at him. “So you really liked her, didn’t you?” She muttered. Austin nodded, shamelessly.
“I loved your mother very much.”
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Sienna
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Austin kissed her forehead as she clambered into the top bunk and curled up, closing her eyes. He had explained to her about the media these days and the way they warped words. She still didn’t get her phone back and she knew that Austin knew about her blades, but she didn’t mind it that much.
She listened as the door to the bus opened and men piled in. She heard a sigh and the rustle of a couch being sat on and the TV being flipped on. “We’re moving in few minutes.” said Phil’s voice. “Make sure everything is inside.”
“I’ll do a quick check outside.” Austin offered. The door opened again and this time she felt the cold draft hit her skin. Her eyes opened and she stared at the curtain that separated her from the world.
“Everything’s in.” Austin confirmed and the bus started to move forward making Sienna’s stomach lurch.
“So how did things go with you and Sienna?” Tino was the first to ask the question. She heard Austin sigh loudly and sit down on the couch.
“Honestly, better than I thought it would be. We sat on the couch and looked through the bullshit on the internet. She calmed down a bit.”
“When are you having that interview?” Phil asked. Again, Austin sighed.
“I’m not having an interview.”
Sienna’s heart thudded so loudly, she was sure that the others could hear it, but to her surprise, no one opened her curtain.
“What do you mean?” Alan asked angrily. “Did you see what she did to herself because of what the others said?”
“You don’t understand.” Austin sounded stressed. “While she was in the bathroom, I wrote this whole piece. Check it out. I’m gonna post it in a few minutes.”
She heard a scuffle and almost jumped when her curtain was slowly opened. She felt hands go over her body and touch the outlet and she heard the familiar sound of the charging signal, then the curtain was closed. She opened her eyes to find her phone lying on her stomach, now charging.
“You’re really gonna post this?” Aaron breathed. “With her twitter name on it and everything?”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” muttered the tour manager. The drum tech agreed and Sienna was now dying to know what the piece said.
“Well, I’m going to. I don’t care what happens.”
There was silence as the men sighed.
“Post it.” Alan ordered.
There was a series of beeps and buzzes instantly, Sienna’s phone being one of them. She slowly opened her phone and read the tweet.
Austin Carlile: @austincarlile who is this girl? visit this link to find out.
She clicked on the link and was brought to a small blog site, a large amount of writing took up the majority of the page.
Who is this girl? I have heard so much about how she’s either a groupie, or a band slut, or an attention seeking cow. How low can you be to say that about a fourteen year old girl? This girl is my daughter. I recently found out about her when I learned of a family tragedy and I wound up getting an email in the middle of the night. I’ll admit, I was nervous about having a kid. I never thought of myself as a father. Now, it’s all I can think of myself as. I can’t even think of myself as being a performer without the word father in there. She has been so strong and kept all of the rude and immature comments to herself that you all have been saying to her. She never told me about them. I had to go through multiple people to find out what you have been saying to her. Any insult you say to her is a direct insult to me. Every swear, every threat, every fucking ‘gross’ emoticon that is written is a direct stab to my heart. She’s my little girl, my daughter, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. If you aren’t a fan of her, don’t you dare call yourself a fan of mine. Sincerely,
Austin Robert Carlile
Sienna was in tears when she finished reading. Her phone was now getting multiple notifications of: OMG you’re really his daughter? to I’m so sorry, Sienna! You’re beautiful!
Sienna blinked harshly at the words of hate-turned-compliments. It confused her to the fullest. She swallowed hard and let a sob leave her mouth. She curled up against the wall and hugged herself, forgetting the world for a moment.
She felt the padding of the bed bend down a bit and she heard a grunt of Austin climbing into the bunk with her.
“Hey, can I sleep here tonight?” he asked softly. She nodded and wiped her tears away, her mouth quivering. Austin grinned and kissed her head softly.
“Why’d you do that?” she asked.
“Cause your face is right there.” Austin laughed tiredly. “And so was mine.”
She blinked in confusion and shook her head. “No, I mean, why’d you write that?”
Austin was silent as he thought of the right words to say. Finally, he swallowed hard, resting his chin on her head. “Because you don’t deserve anything like that.” he explained. “You deserve to be surrounded by people who love you.”
“No one loves me.” she muttered to herself, but apparently she spoke a little too loud and turns out, everyone in the bus could hear her scoff it.
“I LOVE YOU!” Alan roared, barreling into her bunk and squishing the two uncomfortably.
“ME TOO!” Tino shouted, doing the same as Alan.
“ME THREE!” Aaron screamed.
“ME WHATEVER COMES AFTER THREE!” Phil joined in. Soon, everyone was desperately trying to squeeze into Sienna’s bunk. Sienna let out a gasp as she was shoved into the wall.
“Guys, flattering and all, but get the fuck out.” Sienna chuckled. Soon the pressure was lifted and Austin was left in her bunk settling back into comfortable silence.
“I love you five!”